168 light led red n blue grow light

I think Dennise and Reg use them more as supplemental lighting, or for just one plant. They both have other lighting in use, but Jimmy is right..best thing to do is ask the growers' using them. :thumb:
 
That should be enough for a single plant, as long as it doesn't get too big. I use about 300 watts of LED light; 30,000 lumen or about 15,000 lux in my grow room. (~2 square meters)

I would use four of the advertised bulb for your grow area, to get around half the intensity of sunlight just below the bulbs.
 
Total lighting wattage, regardless of type of lighting, should be at least 50 watts/sq. ft. of growing space. There are many factors to consider but this is considered a simple, yet useful, metric for good lighting to grow cannabis. In my all CFL grow, I average ~55 watts/sq. ft. during vegetation and ~65 watts/sq. ft. during flowering. LEDs are a good way to add supplemental lighting without adding to any heat issues.
 
ColoradoHigh said:
Actual wattage, the equivalent wattage is useful only in finding CFLs that have equivalent outputs to incandescent bulbs so you can select the correct CFL to replace a specific incandescent in a standard household light.
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So what u r saying Colorado is that given my total sq. footage of approximately 30 sq. ft , I would need approximately 60 23 watt CFLs to have appropriate coverage if my math is correct? Seems like an awful lot for 2,or 3 plants....but then again #,of plants really doesn't matter if I am understanding u correctly....lol, the more questions I ask , the greater my confusion seems to be!
 
The math assumes a fully utilized grow space. You are only using a small percentage of your growing area, so for 2 or 3 plants, your grow area would be no more than 1/4 to 1/3 of the total space available. In that case, you should be fine with ~400-500 watts or so, or ~17-22 23 watt CFLs. Mind you, they all don't have to, and probably shouldn't, be placed overhead, spreading about 30%-40%, 6-7 CFLs around the sides for sidelighting is a good idea due to the relatively low light penetration of CFLs.
 
LEDs can be used anywhere a CFL can but since LEDs have much better light penetration than CFLs, keep an eye out for any light stress issues due to too close proximity to the plants. That isn't a real concern when it comes to CFLs unless the plants actually come into physical contact with a CFL. I have yet to use those LED floods but I've seen other growers use them as spot lamps for specific areas/plants that need a little extra light moving them around every few days to a new location.
 
You can use the LED floods just as they are in any regular light bulb socket. I see no problem with a 75%-25% mix of veg/flower or flower/veg spectrums, a lot of growers mix spectrums throughout the growth cycle. I have no experience with autos but as long as the majority of lighting is in the spectrum range for that particular stage, any mix you desire would work.
 
KaBloom said:
...as far as supplementing with the LED floods, would u put them above or spread them just below the canopy?
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Sounds like you intend a scrog grow? I'd put the LED's where they light up the greatest amount of leaf surface. That would be above the canopy of a screen of green.
 
KaBloom -

IMO the 168 LED light you linked to falls under the "toy" category. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt and trust that they're not fudging on the wattage. They probably are fudging, but for the sake of the argument. 168 LED's using 38 watts of power. 38 watts divided across 168 LED's gives you .23 watts per LED.

As you know, there's more disagreement than consensus on LED, but everything I've read says you need at least 1 watt/LED for penetration. The big boys (A-51, Apache, California Light Works, etc.) are employing at least 3W - 5W LED's.

That 168 LED floodlight is stuffed full of very low power LED's giving off that purplish glow that looks like the real thing. But I'd call it mood lighting rather than a tool to grow plants. Just my two cents, I'm not an expert. But I've spent about a thousand hours the last two months reading other people's opinions, grow journals, etc. I've seen successful journals using Home Depot Cree's, DIY LED's glued to aluminum plates, and numerous other questionable looking operations. Never seen a successful grow journal using anything like that 168 - 38 light.
 
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